💬"Essentially it's a terrorist attack because they [Ukraine] knew what it was. Yes, it's in a combat zone, but they knew the airplane was there. They knew what the load was. They knew their own prisoners of war that held by Russia, were on the plane, being transported," Earl Rasmussen, retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel, said about the the downing of an IL-76 with prisoners of war.

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‘Someone didn’t get the memo’: Fmr Pentagon analyst on why Ukraine may have shot down plane full of its own PoWs

“There has to be liaison between the two sides to know that there's going to be an exchange, that's for sure. I would imagine that Ukraine probably did not inform all of its ground-to-air systems along the way. That's the only thing I can conclude is that somebody didn't get the memo. And, as a consequence, shot down the aircraft,” Michael Maloof, a former senior security policy analyst at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, told Sputnik, commenting on Wednesday’s deadly attack on a Russian Il-76 airlifter with dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war onboard.

“It's not hard to distinguish a cargo plane from a military fighter and the radars would indicate that. But in this case somebody on the ground just gave an order seeing that it was just flying out of Russia, I presume, and shot it down,” Maloof said.

“Clearly the Ukrainians brought down the airplane, that's the one thing that's been established. Which system was used has not been verified, if it could be verified. I'm sure there's going to be some evidence around to check. And I'm sure we'll hear something,” the observer noted.

Ukraine’s mystery ‘never before seen’ weapons will likely include aircraft, missiles

“There is a list of specific weapons which Kiev is demanding and begging the collective West for but which haven’t reached the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Alexander Mikhailov, the head of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis think tank, told Sputnik.

He was commenting on a Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman’s announcement Tuesday that Kiev would be getting new arms in 2024 which Kiev does not presently have.

“I strongly doubt that Ukraine’s military will actually receive F-16s in the required numbers; hypothetically they could get a few for some show flights and for the use of long-range aircraft missiles. But by and large, this, again, will not have a serious effect, and would be enough for just several days of aerial battles,” Mikhailov said.

“As for other types of weapons, Ukraine is constantly asking for long-range missiles. But there are questions related to the ‘red lines’ around the issue drawn by Russia and the West,” Mikhailov said, referring to long-standing warnings by Moscow to NATO that pumping Kiev up with more and more advanced weapons threatens to escalate the conflict.

Ultimately, the analyst believes the Ukrainian crisis has demonstrated that large numbers of small arms, anti-tank systems and drones are a much bigger threat to Russian forces on the ground than small numbers of prestigious ‘superweapons’ Ukraine has received from the West.

The much-hyped Leopard, Abrams and Challenger tanks and ATACMS missiles have had virtually no effect on the battlefield, failing to break Russia’s defensive lines or resolve.

❗️LIVE NOW: Russian FM Sergey Lavrov holds press conference after UNSC meetings in New York

Watch the livestream here or follow the link to the Sputnik's website

❗️Russia has requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council at 15:00 New York time regarding the downed Il-76

❗️Lavrov: Russia hopes that the French presidency will not refuse to convene an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council, as was the case after the Bucha hoax, when Britain, as chairman, refused to hold an urgent meeting

❗️Lavrov: the POWs exchange between the Russian Federation and Ukraine was agreed upon, but instead Kiev attacked the Il-76 plane with anti-aircraft missiles.

Lavrov: After the plane crashed after being hit by anti-aircraft guns, the Ukrainian side announced its valiant achievements. but after it became known that the plane was transporting prisoners, the Ukrainian side immediately began to sweep the traces under the carpet.

❗️Lavrov on IL-76 crash: Russia is trying to establish facts right now

❗️Lavrov: We have just received information and are checking it, which is why we insist on convening an extraordinary meeting today so that Ukraine can tell what happened

♻️ Want to save on recycling? Send your garbage to Ukraine!

Berlin will send six Sea King Mk41 helicopters to Ukraine, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced on Tuesday touting the outdated aircraft as "proven and reliable." It's not the first time that a Western country has sent its outdated arms to Ukraine.

▪️The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO) is urging its government to deliver its retired fleet of Taipan choppers to Ukraine, as it would be cheaper than scrapping them;

▪️The UK sent their older-model Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Kiev, later admitting that they may have hazardous substances in their armor;

▪️French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu told Franceinfo last September that the Ukraine assistance program allowed Paris to get rid of plenty of old arms;

▪️The Netherlands announced in November that sending its decommissioned Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine would give them "second life".

▪️Denmark is due to provide its legacy F-16 warplanes to Ukraine later this year.

The list goes on and on. NATO allies and their partners have capitalized on the opportunity to save on recycling. Old choppers, tanks, howitzers and other weapons have been "generously" donated to the Ukrainian military, saving the millions it would cost to bury them in landfill.

Attack on Il-76 over the Belgorod region is Kiev’s use of terrorist methods - Lavrov

⚡️Lavrov: Given the efforts made by the states and their allies to modernize nuclear weapons in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, tactical nuclear weapons are located in 5 NATO countries. The United States refuses to withdraw these weapons to its territory. Therefore, at the request of the President of Belarus, we placed our weapons there.

❗️Lavrov: I’m not at all worried that the international community may not believe statements that there were Ukrainian prisoners of war in the downed Il-76

📹 Lavrov: Russia hopes that the French presidency will not refuse to convene an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council, as was the case after the Bucha hoax, when Britain, as chairman, refused to hold an urgent meeting

📹 "It takes a long time for the information to reach you" — Lavrov on the question of whether Russia intends to use nuclear weapons that Russia sent to Belarus

⚡️Lavrov: ceasefire proposals between Hamas and Israel distract from resolving the issue

⚡️Lavrov: Russia and the United States have nothing to discuss on strategic stability now

❗️Lavrov: There are practically no relations between the Russian Federation and the United States; they rarely contact each other regarding the work of embassies: the conversation is “rather boring”

Meanwhile in France: Farmers water the prefecture with slurry

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